Gone in the Night

“Gone in the Night" has some fun twists and turns and the final reveal is satisfyingly creepy as hell.

I had no business liking “Gone in the Night” as much as I did. The film features strong performances from Winona Ryder and Dermot Mulroney, but some clunky flashbacks and the filmmaker’s willingness to let intelligent characters make dumb choices almost derail the film. But the film’s unpredictability is what makes it so charming and engaging.

Kath (Ryder) and her boyfriend Max (John Gallagher Jr.) are headed into the wood for a nice quiet weekend away from the city. Max has booked the perfect rental, but when they pull up to the house, they find another couple, Al (Owen Teague) and Greta (Brianne Tju), already at the house. Here comes the first time we see our characters make questionable decisions. Faced with the reality of driving back into the city in the dead of night, Max asks if he and Kath can spend the night – with strangers in the middle of the woods in a house they don’t know.

And these aren’t entirely normal behaving people. Both are wearing raincoats inside the house, Al is as bizarre as they come, and Greta is a little too eager to let them stay.

Of course, they allow Max and Kath to stay. As they ease into the evening, they begin playing a vintage board game that challenges the players to answer questions about their past relationships and ends up with Greta licking Max’s elbow at one point. Completely normal, folks – nothing out of the ordinary here.

Kath retires early and when she awakes the following day, the house is quiet. Not finding the other three in the place, she ventures out into the woods, where she finally comes across Al sitting alone in tears, explaining that Max and Greta have run off together. Returning to the house, she finds Greta’s car gone, fires up her car, and heads back to the city, leaving Al alone on the porch.

Struggling to get past what happened, Kath convinces the rental home’s owner Barlow (Mulroney), to help her find Greta so she can come to terms with what happened. As mysteries are slowly revealed, Kath realizes it’s time to move on with a person her age and more her contemporary and Barlow fits the bill perfectly.

Feeling more alive than she has in a long time, Kath decides to head north and visit Barlow, but an unexpected visit catches him off-guard and Kath learns the truth – Barlow isn’t who he claims to be and Max may have disappeared for a more sinister reason.

“Gone in the Night” starts like many low-budget thriller flicks, but some quick twists and turns make the film so unpredictable it’s hard not to like. The problem is that what works well at times is also what hinders the movie the most. At times you find yourself not sure if you’re in the present or the past, and while I think that was by design by director and co-writer Eli Horowitz, it becomes too much at times.

Ryder is great as Kath, an aging woman who is constantly reminded at every turn she’s not as young as she once was. I love the thought behind his element of the story, but it’s played too often and almost becomes laughable. Mulroney is on point as usual and his ability to give us a character we think we know and then do a 180 is played to perfection. Ryder was great, but Mulroney is who kept me invested in the story.

“Gone in the Night” is a film you’ll either love or hate as it forges its own path for good or ill. For me, I loved the twists and turns, and the final reveal was satisfyingly creepy as hell.